Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives in General Assembly convened:

Section 1. (NEW) (Effective October 1, 2014) (a) Each municipal and volunteer fire department shall maintain such department's fire apparatus in compliance with safety, inspection and maintenance regulations of the United States Department of Transportation and maintain pump and aerial components of such department's fire apparatus in compliance with inspection, maintenance and testing requirements of standard 1911 of the National Fire Protection Association.

(b) The failure of a fire department to comply with subsection (a) of this section shall constitute negligence and, notwithstanding the provisions of section 31-284 of the general statutes, any paid or volunteer firefighter who sustains personal injury as a result of such noncompliance may bring a civil action against such municipality to recover damages for such injury in lieu of filing a claim for compensation under chapter 568 of the general statutes. Governmental immunity shall not be a defense in such action.

This act shall take effect as follows and shall amend the following sections:

Section 1

October 1, 2014

New section

Statement of Purpose:

To ensure that fire departments maintain their fire apparatus in an operationally safe condition.

[Proposed deletions are enclosed in brackets. Proposed additions are indicated by underline, except that when the entire text of a bill or resolution or a section of a bill or resolution is new, it is not underlined.]

The State of Connecticut has started some research on the above proposed Bill. There was a questionere sent throughout the country asking if similar states have similar language already in place. Please download and read the PDF attachment to see the results.